November 20 2020     #191

Fountain House Gallery:

Small Works $100 & Under

Fountain House Gallery – the premier venue in New York City representing artists with mental illness – today announced the upcoming exhibition Small Works: $100 & Under. This show, an annual Gallery event, will remain on view online from November 19, 2020 through December 23, 2020.

Fountain House Gallery, Susan Baus (2020). Mixed media scanned object digital collage print mounted on hand painted golden wooden box, 5 x 7 in. / 12.7 x 17.8 cm

Small Works offers more than 200 pieces of original art, sized at 6 by 6 inches or smaller and priced at $100 or less. Over the years, this exhibition has become a perennial favorite with art lovers, collectors, and holiday shoppers.

Everyday People 1, 3, 5 & 8, Issa Ibrahim (2020). Oil, acrylic & marker on canvas, 2 x 2 in. / 5.1 x 5.1 cm

This year, as Fountain House Gallery remains closed to the public due to the pandemic, works can be acquired by contacting the Gallery via the online exhibition page. Options for “safe” pick-up or delivery of purchased works are available.

Wedding Flowers, Kelly Han (2014). Digital photography, 5 x 7 in. / 12.7 x 17.8 cm

Small works can have a big impact, lending themselves to hanging solo or in groupings. Fountain House Gallery artists, who customarily work in a variety of mediums and sizes, continue to embrace the opportunity to create in the scaled-down format of this yearly show, unleashing their talents on fresh mediums and ideas.

Left: Marika, right: Mario, Lucinda Fernández (2020). Crochet, 4.5 in. / 11.4 cm & 5.5 in. / 14 cm

Among the mediums represented in Small Works are acrylic, mixed media, fabric, and digital photography, with ceramic and jewelry pieces included in the mix. The online exhibition can be viewed at www.artsy.net.

Follow Fountain House Gallery on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for more info.

Obituary:

Ruth Kohler (1941–2020)

Ruth DeYoung Kohler II, Director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, sadly passed away on November 14 at the age of 79.

Ruth was a tireless champion of under-recognized artists and art forms. She saw the arts as a driver of positive social change, upholding the pillars of diversity, inclusiveness and community involvement.

Ruth Kohler; photo: ruthkohlertribute.com

She believed passionately that the arts, in all its iterations, reveal who we are as a people: past, present and future.

Through her work at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Kohler Foundation Inc., National Endowment for the Arts, and the Wisconsin Arts Board, among others, she promoted equitable and inclusive access to the arts in her local community, her home state of Wisconsin, and on national and international levels.

Ruth with folklorist Fred Fussel at St. E.O.M's Pasaquan environment, Georgia, Ovtober 10, 2014; photo: Jenna Robinson

Beginning in 1967, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center served as the main conduit for Kohler’s vision to embrace diversity, preserve culture, change perceptions, and expand knowledge through the arts. She served as the Arts Center’s director from 1972–2016, having started as a volunteer and holding the position of assistant director from 1968–1972.

Ruth Kohler; photo: Aliza Baran

Through her guidance, the Arts Center grew from a local arts center to an internationally recognized institution presenting contemporary art, the work of vernacular artists, performing arts, and the work of art-environment builders.

Under Ruth Kohler’s leadership, artist-built environments were not the only area for which the John Michael Kohler Arts Center gained worldwide attention; the Arts Industry residency program became renowned as one of the most remarkable alliances of art and industry in the United States. 

"Around the Corner with John McGivern, Interview #105: Ruth Kohler" 2012. Video: Milwaukee PBS. Interviewer John McGivern talks to Ruth Kohler from the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

Faced with increased interest in the work of art-environment builders and an expanding collection, in the early 2000s, Ruth began planning the Art Preserve – the first facility of its kind, dedicated to the study of the art form and conservation, preservation, and presentation of the works.

In 2016, Ruth stepped away from the directorship to concentrate on making the Art Preserve a reality. With the acquisition of 38 acres on Sheboygan’s west side, construction began in 2018.  In summer 2021, Ruth’s vision of a center devoted to artist-built environments will hold its grand opening.

Text extracts from RuthKohlerTribute.com

The Museum + Gallery of Everything:

Conversation on artist Hilma af Klint 

Hilma af Klint is one of the phenomena of 19th, 20th and 21st art. Her story starts with an artist’s search for truth, and ends with blockbuster exhibitions around the world almost 80 years later.

Modern Films & Halina Dyrschka, (2020), Beyond the Visible

Halina Dyrschka is an award-winning director and producer, whose new documentary on the artist – Beyond the Visible – is the first to explore the complex history of the artist and the origin (and re-discovery) of her groundbreaking spiritualist oeuvre.

Iris Müller-Westermann is the Director of Malmö’s Moderna Museet. She was the curator behind the acclaimed retrospective of Hilma af Klint.

James Brett is the curator and founder of The Museum and Gallery of Everything, whose exhibitions have featured works by Hilma af Klint, including The Medium's Medium (2019) and Everything #7 at MONA (2017/18).

To watch a video of their live conversation, please click here. To watch Beyond the Visible, please click here.

Galerie ART CRU Berlin:

Sonja Halbfass exhibition

Galerie ART CRU Berlin presents and exhibition of work from Sonja Halbfass.

Halbfass was born in 1968 in Eschwege (Hessen). She grew up in an academic household, spending her formative years in the USA after several moves between the American continent and Germany.

Leben einer Frau (Life of a woman), Sonja Halbfass (1998). Acrylic, 16.5 x 24 in. / 42 x 60 cm

She was an artistically talented and model student. After being hospitalized at the age of 18 she went on to study psychology and obtained a university degree. In 1989 she relocated to Germany where she has since been living in various forms of sheltered housing.

Tanz um Saturn (Dance around Saturn), Sonja Halbfass (2004). Mixed media, 16.5 x 24 in. / 42 x 60 cm

The paintings in this exhibition (created over the past 25 years) convey a spherical atmosphere with compositions that seem to float in the universe. In some of her works on paper, Halbfass forms almost surreal, delicately detailed motifs with a sweeping brushstroke and uncanny precision. 

Kraftwerk, Sonja Halbfass (1998). Acryl, 20 x 27.5 in. / 50 x 70 cm

These extraordinary paintings reach us like messages from another world. We experience pulsating, teeming, abstract color compositions and challenging perspectives, somewhere between Pop, Op and Psychedelic Art; combined with blurred figurative scenes full of symbolism and enigmatic messages, oscillating between impression and expression.

Innerer Garten (Inner Garden), Sonja Halbfass (2010). Acrylic, 16.5 x 24 in. / 42 x 60 cm

Galerie ART CRU Berlin is the first Berlin gallery that focuses on art by people with disabilities. Their aim is to promote  these artists, who are mostly self-taught and work outside the established art world. These people often find it difficult or impossible to develop professionalism as an artist; ART CRU's priority is to reduce the distance between the established art business and the original and unadulterated works of these artists.

Follow them on Instagram to see more astounding art.

Raw Vision 106: Out now

Raw Vision #106 features: Gwyneth Rowlands, Joe Coleman, Patrick Hackleman, Jean-Marc Renault, Nellie Mae Rowe, Monique Mercerat, Albert and La Fabuloserie. 

For orders of 10+ issues please email info@rawvision.com for a reduced postage cost.